Proteomics strategies to analyze HPV-transformed cells: relevance to cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is the second most common malignant tumor among women worldwide. The initiating event of cervical cancer is the infection with certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV). Interestingly, viral oncogene expression is necessary but not per se sufficient to promote cervical cancer and other factors are involved in neoplastic progression. Thus, major research efforts should be focused to identify novel co-carcinogenic factors and to understand the mechanisms played into tumor development. To reach this goal, proteomics strategies are powerful tools and a number of studies performed by following this approach have contributed to unravel the interplay between viral infection and protein dysfunction that ultimately results in cancer. The present review summarizes the most relevant findings obtained by applying proteomics technologies to both cell culture models and human tissue specimens. The results suggest that viral oncogenes selectively interact with a subset of intracellular proteins mainly involved in apoptosis resistance, cell growth and differentiation and cell transformation.